Test results in this range indicate a mild injury.  

 Expected Recovery time: ~ 1-2 months

Congratulations! Being categorized, as ‘Mild Injury’ means your wrist is stable and you can load it for athletic endeavors. This has taken over 10 years of research to determine! Don’t let this give you a false sense of security – No push-ups, No bicep curls, NO rotated pull-ups until you are 100% healed. 

It is imperative to the healing process that you work to unwind all of the imbalances in your torso, shoulder, neck, elbow and lastly wrist. You need to stretch daily.

• You should stretch the spine, neck, shoulder, and elbow ALL whilst integrating pronation and supination. Start with NO load and stretch everything. Then add a 1 lb weight.
• Then a 2 lb weight. Etc.
• You want all of your muscles to stretch equally and smoothly

 What you will notice: there are certain positions (without moving the wrist) where you can get your wrist to sublux. These are important to note. During this time, you must avoid bicep curls, push ups, pull downs with the wrist supinated, and pectoralis strengthening. These are the muscles that need stretching! You need to elongate these muscles and strengthening does the opposite.

Your goal is to take 2-4 weeks to focus on the imbalances that this injury caused and there are many, especially when you have had the injury for a long time. Strengthen instead: the triceps, the rhomboids, the lats and especially start planks on your elbow, not your hands. Get your core muscles working together. Squats and ab work help a ton.

Healing

In this healing phase, you should continue wearing the WristWidget® until your weight bearing is normal (equal to your uninjured wrist) and there is NO clicking. You are not done with the healing process yet.

This phase is important because often people think that they are healed and go back to normal functioning without the WristWidget®. They fall back below 65lb for weight bearing tolerance and symptoms resurface.

The main goal is to be pain-free and equal weight bearing tolerance compared to the uninjured side.

1. You need to wear the WristWidget® for ALL loading activities– essentially all day.
2. You can remove it at night.
3. Then on a daily schedule, start the 3 Stretches for TFCC Rehab & Recovery (Pronator Stretches)

4. Conduct Weight Bearing Test on your wrists one time each week.  Record your results on the Weight Bearing Test Log

Diet & Exercise

It’s time to start a clean diet: low sugar, low gluten. no processed foods, ++ dark veggies, + lean protein Limit your protein intake to no more than 30% of your daily macros (Protein / Carbs / Fats). Many patients report that this injury occurs in conjunction with eating a high protein diet.  Add cardio for 20 minutes daily – increases the heart rate and helps the body to heal

Eastern Medicine

Eastern Medicine correlates the TFCC with the gut.  Acupuncture 2-3 times a week is helpful in healing. Many patients report improvement when Pure Turmeric paste is added to the diet. Consider deep tissue massage to the bicep, extensor carpi ulnaris, pectorals major and minor, and subscapularis.  These muscles often have imbalances. 

Support

Join the TFCC and Ulnar Sided Wrist Pain Group on Facebook. This is a place where patients, therapists, physicians, alternative medicine practitioners can share their stories and experiences with this very disabling and mistreated injury